Well,it's been a LONG time. So I'm going to update this long forgotten thread.
Last year I picked up a second pair of speakers. Ed Shillings Great Horned Heils. Awesome sounding and a bit more efficient than my Nola's. Shortly after I came across an F5 clone. I was floored! It worked great with the horns,my passive pre,and surprisingly well with my 90db Nola's. I ended up using this amp for a couple months,then sold it to help fund a turntable upgrade. However,I was so impressed with that amp, I vowed to myself that I would purchase the real First Watt F5. Well,fast forward to today,I unboxed an F5 with about 5 hours on it. All can say at this point,(I've got about 5 hrs on it today) is wow!!! I have a feeling my Monarchy's,which are fine amps,may be going down the road. I have lusted after a First Watt amp for a while,and I'm so happy to finally have this in my system.
Last year I picked up a second pair of speakers. Ed Shillings Great Horned Heils. Awesome sounding and a bit more efficient than my Nola's. Shortly after I came across an F5 clone. I was floored! It worked great with the horns,my passive pre,and surprisingly well with my 90db Nola's. I ended up using this amp for a couple months,then sold it to help fund a turntable upgrade. However,I was so impressed with that amp, I vowed to myself that I would purchase the real First Watt F5. Well,fast forward to today,I unboxed an F5 with about 5 hours on it. All can say at this point,(I've got about 5 hrs on it today) is wow!!! I have a feeling my Monarchy's,which are fine amps,may be going down the road. I have lusted after a First Watt amp for a while,and I'm so happy to finally have this in my system.
Concratulations indeed, I'm curious if you hear a difference with the clone F5.
Can you let us know after a few days of listening?
Bet Papa puts a little magic in his own Firstwatt amps.
Going from memory with the clone F5, of course I can only comment on the one I owned. I also have no idea how old the clone was when I purchased it. I think I was the 3rd or 4th owner. Any way, the first thing I noticed with the First Watt F5,was how dead silent this amp is at idle. With my ear up to the fostex drivers of my Hornshoppe Great Horned Heils there is NOTHING,NADA,ZERO,ZILCH!. Now the clone had a slight hum on the Horns,(93db speakers), and almost nothing on the Nola's.(90db) I haven't had a chance to play the Nola's with the First Watt yet. That will happen later in the week when switch them in my system.
What do I notice sound wise? I did think the clone sounded great. It sounded as good as the Monarchy SM70 MKII 's,with a bit better control on the horns. The upper registers on the Horns weren't as brittle with the clone. Now fast forward to the First Watt,the black background is the first thing that jumped out at me. Everything just sounds better,balanced,with more detail,but not bright at all.
One thing you need to be aware of is you won't be head banging with 100db music cranking! Form my seating position, I have gotten reading on an IPhone app of 90+db. That is fine with me,because I rarely listen over 80db.
Both the clone and the First Watt were fantastic at low volume listening. However the First Watt is king in this area. I attribute this to the dead silence over the clone I had. All I need to figure out now is,what to do with the Monarchy 's???
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